is not final death: there is to be a new Heaven
and a new Earth; a higher supreme God, and Justice to reign among men.
Curious: this law of mutation, which also is a law written in man's
inmost thought, had been deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in
their rude style; and how, though all dies, and even gods die, yet all
death is but a phoenix fire-death, and new-birth into the Greater and
the Better! It is the fundamental Law of Being for a creature made of
Time, living in this Place of Hope. All earnest men have seen into it;
may still see into it.

And now, connected with this, let us glance at the _last_ mythus of
the appearance of Thor; and end there. I fancy it to be the latest in
date of all these fables; a sorrowing protest against the advance of
Christianity,--set forth reproachfully by some Conservative Pagan.
King Olaf has been harshly blamed for his over-zeal in introducing
Christianity; surely I should have blamed him far more for an
under-zeal in that! He paid dear enough for it; he died by the revolt
of his Pagan people, in battle, in the year 1033, at Stickelstad, near
that Drontheim, where the chief Cathedral of the North has now stood
for many centuries, dedicated gratefully to his memory as _Saint_
Olaf. The mythus about Thor is to this effect. King Olaf, the
Christian Reform King, is sailing with fit escort along the shore of
Norway, from haven to haven; dispensing justice, or doing other royal
work: on leaving a certain haven, it is found that a stranger, of
grave eyes and aspect, red beard, of stately robust figure, has stept
in. The courtiers address him; his answers surprise by their
pertinency and depth: at length he is brought to the King. The
stranger's conversation here is not less remarkable, as they sail
along the beautiful shore; but after some time, he addresses King Olaf
thus: "Yes, King Olaf, it is all beautiful, with the sun shining on it
there; green, fruitful, a right fair home for you, and many a sore day
had Thor, many a wild fight with the rock Joetuns, before he could make
it so. And now you seem minded to put away Thor. King Olaf, have a
care!" said the stranger, drawing-down his brows;--and when they
looked again, he was nowhere to be found.--This is the last appearance
of Thor on the stage of this world!

Do we not see well enough how the Fable might arise, without
unveracity on the part of any one? It is the way most Gods have come
to appear among men: thus, if in Pind